ShipScript has been an eBay Community volunteer since 2003, specializing in HTML, CSS, Scripts, Photos, Active Content, Technical Solutions, and online Seller Tools.
Instead of changing things that are working and making them MORE difficult. How about assigning a couple of people to set up their connection with a Windows XP computer and help us poor people that can't aford a new computer. There are so many things that do not work especiqally just as of last week. They will be flabergased by the things that no longer work and hopefully can fix some of them, such as search dont work anymore. Even on the unsold page we cannot delete the sold and relisted items. Most of the problems only started about two weeks ago. I know I am not the only one trying to use a XP. Try dong some good for a change and help us out. Instead of us trying to explain. Start up a XP and try to do several things on the HUB page. You see what we are dealing with. Last week I called about a problem and sure everything is working on your computer it is not a XP. Finnally they just hung up on me. Was going to call them back but I had already waisted 2 hours on the phone trying to explain what my computer was NOT doing. What harm would it do to have a XP there to experience our problems.
OK I have vented enough. I am a fixer but this I cannot fix without your help.
I had XP for almost 20 years, with a number of special programs installed that I used daily (some that I wrote myself). It was an extension of my own capabilities. XP was the basis of my eBay life. As support ceased, and upgrades ended, I resisted moving to a new operating system because I would no longer be able to use those legacy programs that served me so well in the past. And the new computer interfaces were changing so significantly that it would take forever to adapt.
So I kept hanging on by threads— even as eBay moved into new programming that was only supported by newer browsers (on machines with more memory), limiting what I could do on eBay. I had thought I could hang on that way until I retired from eBaying.
But then, 18 months ago, my hard drive failed and I had to face that difficult decision. Retire from eBaying and start gardening, or get a new computer. At the same time, my 80 year old spouse decided we both needed to move from XP to something better. I had to agree that I was so far behind on the computer-interface that any upgrade would be foreign, and that, with such a whopping learning curve, it really didn't matter what computer we chose next.
He took to his new machine immediately, exploring all of its new capabilities and adding new programs.
It took me at least 6 months to find my way around the programs I would need to use, and about a year to get muscle-memory comfortable with this new Apple machine (I type, rather than hunt-n-peck). The keyboard is wrong, the mouse is wrong, the screen is too big, and the text is too small. I went through 2 different keyboards and a passel of mice before settling on something matching my motor memory. But I finally settled on running Win 10 on it. So, if I were to start over, I would probably just get Win 10 on a cheap PC.
However, the huge difference is that this Mac uses solid-state flash memory instead of a rotating hard drive. Have a desktop? Notice how noisy that whirring hard drive is on that old XP? Well, this Apple thing is absolutely silent because there are no moving parts. There is no computer box either because memory chips are tiny, and there is no floppy disk or CD (rotating memory) —which could be troublesome if your data is archived on that sort of external media. I've archived my data from my old machine to a couple of USB thumb drives, and moved that to my new machine.
If you are currently using a laptop, then a new laptop with Win10 or Win 11 would be the way to go.
I hope you are planning on spending more that a few more years on eBay, and on this earth. A new computer, while an imposition at first, could take you through the next ten years, and beyond. That's where my plans lie. 🙂
@packratville wrote:
Just curious, isn't security also a concern when using an older operating system such as Windows XP?
Surprisingly, the older a system gets, the farther out of range that less-prevalent system becomes. Malware typically aims for the widest market, and older systems may not even have the resources that malware is targeting.
But it depends on the operator. A few years into the game, I removed the security packages that were bogging down my XP on eBay - so it remained loosely protected for 15 years. The key to good security is to pay attention and don't stray off course. Don't blindly click links and don't open email attachments you don't trust. Don't visit clickbait sites with embedded ads and popups that cause panicked confusion. Don't download freeware (they contain payloads).
Security packages can sometimes cause complacency that results in recklessness, so even if security is up to par, a user must remain alert. To that end, I've trained myself to hover every email link before I click (if I click at all); and to question every website, and every website link, that is not in my normal daily routine.
If Ebay is the only site you use it for. I have had no problems other than the ones Ebay makes by changing the codes, so the XP cannot pull up pages. Like listing, Cannot list or revise listings any more.
